'Terrorism will not defeat democracy' - Chorley MP's defiant message

Daria Neklesa

Chorley MP, Lindsay Hoyle, has issued a defiant message to terrorists this morning saying "terrorism will not defeat democracy".

The Deputy Speaker for the House Commons and Labour MP spoke out about yesterday's terrorist attack in a BBC Breakfast interview close to the scene of the atrocities.

He also described the death of PC Keith Palmer in yesterday's tragedy as "losing one of our own" and praised the police response to the attack.

Mr Hoyle said that security would now be reviewed in an emergency security meeting.

Yesterday, Deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle was forced to halt the sitting of the House as MPs telling them to remain in the chamber as details of the incident filtered through.

MPs were locked in the chamber of the House of Commons for almost five hours and only released after dark.

Mr Hoyle said today: "First of all as we'd expect. We're in a village and one of our village policemen has been murdered. All of our thoughts are with the family and the other innocent victims.

"We will not give in to terrorism and today we will continue. We will be paying tributes later this morning then the house will continue with its business.

"[The police are] there to defend the democracy and to defend us and they did the job yesterday to protect members of parliament.

"But the tragedy was that we lost one of our PCs who was part of our village. Yesterday the house was united. When I closed the chamber down the one thing I can say is that MPs were together for each other and obviously everybody was very concerned about the innocent victims.

"What we do know is the security worked well apart from losing the tragic [PC].

"Everybody was very professional in the way they dealt with it and the way they responded. We couldn't have asked for a better way for it to be done.

"I chair the security committee we will be having an emergency meeting. We will reflect on what else needs to be put in place.

"This was a threat to everybody yesterday but the one thing I can be sure of is terrorism will not defeat democracy.

"It's a horrible day for members but we've got to get on and show that terrorism will not defeat the House of Commons and democracy. People have witnessed things that they never expect to witness in their lives but support is in place to make sure everybody feels reassured."

Four people are now known to have been killed in the incident including the terrorist and seven are in a critical condition.

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